Thursday, June 02, 2011

The Indiana Time Machine

I was going to wake up bright and early Tuesday morning and go down to the Wabash.
I woke up at 6:48. Sleeping in for me. So I showered, got a waffle, and checked out of the Best Western – Inn at Old Vincennes.
I did take a trip down to the Clark memorial so I could ponder it mysteries. Still no answer.
I then decided to take a trip up to the Site Of Fort Knox II, just north of town. Don't ask me why, as when I was there in October, the gate was closed. One of those listening to the still,small voice moments.
A little note here, There was three Forts in Vincennes.
The first was Fort Sackville, which built by the British and captured By George Rogers Clark. It was on the same location as the memorial. When it became decrepit, It was wrecked, and replaced by Fort Knox I, the site of which is just to the north across Vigo Street, now the site of Downtown Vincennes. This is the fort that I'm attempting to depict in my work.
Fort Knox II was built in the early 1800's and was in use during the war of 1812. There was a Fort Knox III, which existed for a Brief time after the treaty, which would make the contemporary Military post Fort Knox IV(all named for Henry Knox, the First Secretary of War.)
Once I got there, the gate was open. I drove in. The outline of the fort, is, well , outlined.
The location was chosen because it sits on bluff overlooking the Wabash.
A neat place, even though it outside my time line.
When I had planed this trip, I had thought about going down to Shawneetown on the Ohio. I eventually decided it was too far.
I would up heading out to Lincoln City and the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial.(“Honest Abe” lived here from when he was 8 until he was 21.) They have a nice memorial built by the State of Indiana. Another one of those still small voice decisions.
The main reason I went here was that there is a living history farm in the park. I wanted to wander around, but had to wander back to modern times to get some water first.
The actual cabin site is outlined:
8 people lived in this little cabin.
They have a replica.
The guide had an aunt who's also an aspiring historical fiction writer. We hit it off. I learned who to make yarn from both sheep hair(wool) and flax (linen) and how to generally get my little log cabin on the cover of the May 1812 edition of Good Housekeeping. Very much worth my time, even thought it was a bit off my time frame.
I decided to head back to Evansville, stopping at Steak N Shake for lunch.
I still had some time, so I headed over to Angel Mounds State Historic Site. Look who was there:
Well, Tecumseh was a Native American. 1205 is a little out of my time range, but it did give some practice of walking through a scene and winding it back.
Deer Running was escorting his new friend, Ms Lingo, through the Village. She was amazed that they kept the commons so free of grass.
“It used to be neater.” He lamented “Then the ugly ones killed the great leader, and we cannot find one to take his place.”
Just then, he noticed a man had joined them. He was pale faced, like Ms Lingo, but was tall and gangly. He was wearing a strange black hat and had hair on his face. He extend his hand to Deer Running.
“I grew up around here, and have considerable experience leading nations in time of war, which Ms Lingo can attest. Abraham Lincoln, esquire, at your service”
Back to reality. When I got to EVV, the TSA pulled me aside. I set off the Explosive Residue Dectector. Imagine that!
N605KS arrived to whisk us to DFW. Once there I decided to head to Chapel to meditate some more:
The time machine kicked in again. This is no ordinary airport chapel.
It's 1976. Instead of a bunch of red, white, and blue ERJs parked at the gate, There are 727's. Some are orange, some are blue, some are purple. All have two letters painted on the tail. BI. Braniff International Airways. And I'm going to LAX , and don't have to worry about eating an imitation barbecue sandwich in some fast food place, because we'll get fed on the plane, even if we are setting in economy.
The Chapel in Terminal “B” is a memorial to Braniff (The “Top Star”: Tom Braniff)
I moved over to Terminal “D” and back to the present day.
It seem like Flight 661 always boards here, even thought this is DFW's “International” Terminal. Maybe American is trying to send us a message that Southern California is really another Country.
Aside from a slight delay (Flight to Sao Paulo was having Boarding issues, and they were in “our” gate), the flight back went OK, and I went back to twiddling bits for food Wednesday morning